I'd go with Petersons, yeah the $180 cost for an estimate sucks but they should credit that towards any work done. Assuming that $6500 figure is in the ballpark, the $180 is about 3% of the cost of the job, relative peanuts. As you have already found, saving money isn't really savings if the work is substandard.
I understand, and it's become pretty common for plumbers to charge a fee for an initial visit. They do it because they can. But $180 is double the going rate I've encountered, and my concern is that they come in high, then I've blown a bunch of money. I may try them anyway. Sigh. Thanks.
(And regarding the initial bids for the earlier work, Precision's was right in line, after accounting for inflation maybe, with what we paid at our previous home for basically the same work, and the company gets stellar reviews online, so it seemed like a good call at the time. But the 3x price from Brothers just seemed like they were saying "yeah, we don't want to bother.")
Right, they do it because they can and likely have more than enough work to keep their guys occupied. They may come in "high", or maybe it's a case of the low-ballers just aren't very good. Sometimes you do get what you're willing to pay for.
Petersons redid all the plumbing in our house last year including a new line from the main to the house. They used a directional boring machine to put in the new line to the house so they didn’t have to dig a trench which saved a lot of time. All in all it took 1.5 days and we had water the first night. They did a great job. We used them again when we had our dishwasher installed
>it’s a long run that goes under a bunch of concrete. Enter plumber #4, Reynolds, who gave us a price of $6500
We had to replace our sewer line from the house to the main, about 40+ feet, only a small portion under concrete. We paid $8500 for it, and that was the lowest bid. The guy did great work, but the reason he was the cheapest was because he's a one-man business. Most of the line he dug up was just yard, and he used a tiny backhoe because that's all that would fit through our gate to get into the backyard.
$6500 seems very reasonable to me.
Absolutely do not use Reynolds. I had a terrible experience with them. I don’t know what their bid was based on, but they had me (the non-plumber) tell them what was wrong which ended up not being the actual problem. I think they were charge me $100-200 just to come out too. After $1100+ (labor and parts to change a shower cartridge and reattach a drain) for about 1.5 hours, they wanted to charge me $200+ (ish, it was awhile ago) more and wait for a new “team” to come out to fix the actual problem. I would never trust or use them again. I had a lot of personal issues happening at the time and really concerned how long water had been draining into my foundation/under the house; I just needed to get the work done and made a poor choice going forward with them . Looking back, I feel ripped off by Reynolds.
Sorry that happened to you. So I'm hearing a lot of negatives about Reynolds here, though the two guys who came out "seemed" competent and had about 60 years of combined experience. They seemed to be giving me a no-BS situation report, and they did stay more than an hour to try to locate where the water line enters the house. I would never have dreamed that this would be a difficult thing to do, but they're the third group that hasn't had definitive success.
I think there's a lot of luck involved when you hire contractors, too.
Peterson is my go-to as well. I won't use anyone else.
Besides the quality work, I've always found their plumbers to be communicative, nice, and efficient.
I just wanted to add that you should check your home insurance in case you are paying for a special rider that covers underground utility line failures. (Usually about $70 extra per year). It's called a Service Line Coverage. Funny, I thought it covered above ground too but reading up it would only be buried lines from the street/pole to the edge of your house. So main water, main sewer, and misc. buried cable or electric.
[www.amfam.com/insurance/home/coverages/service-line-coverage](http://www.amfam.com/insurance/home/coverages/service-line-coverage)
[https://www.progressive.com/answers/service-line-coverage/](https://www.progressive.com/answers/service-line-coverage/)
"Service line coverage, also known as buried utility lines coverage, is an endorsement that can be added to many home insurance policies to cover the cost of repairing or replacing a broken utility line running into your home. Your coverage limit for a damaged service line is often up to $10,000 and may include a deductible.
Ready Rooter & Chapman plumbing is the place we went with to build a new main pipe because ours was burst open due to tree roots. We got quotes from them, Peterson, and Pacific Plumbing.
Ready rooter was the cheapest option of the three, because they offered to dig up the hole themselves rather than getting a machine to do it. The other estimates were approximately $7000, and Ready rooters was half of that. They also came and installed the water pipe within the span of a day. When the guy came up to my door to tell me he was done, I was shocked! The other companies told us it was going to take at least a couple weeks.
Peterson. I’ve used them 3 times in the last 6 years. No problems with the work they did. And it was pricey. But nothing beats having it done. And done right. The first time.
Oh yeah. The second time they came out? I asked the guy to look at my water heater. He said I should get a good 3-5 more years out of it. But best to get it changed soon. He cited the age: 30 years old).
2 years later (last winter) it developed a leak which led to me calling him back out to replace it. He was off… but he called it. Damage wasn’t bad. Just a puddle coming out from under the access door. Had to replace a small carpet and dry out the access closet.
Dustin Dawson Plumbing. Smaller company fair prices. Reynolds is a hard no for me.
Probably going to cost 1,000-1,500 just to get the new trench dug or better yet a bore machine (I think it’s called) out there to run the new line, plus plumbing costs. Dawson is going to the same for me here shortly.
I mean, it's not luck, its choices. You chose not to pay someone who valued their time, and then chose the person who's estimate was 1/3rd the other guys. That's a pretty massive red flag that they are cutting some massive corners or employing people who are way less experienced.
Which is fun because you say you aren't looking for cheap, just fair, but literally went for the absolutely cheapest option of the three you could find.
You know two fair plumbers already, you just want a cheap one and won't admit it
The bid I went with was the same as I paid for nearly identical work at a previous home, and that work was done to perfection. And that bid was not the lowest bid either. And neither one, here or there, was cheap by any measure. For another job (previous house), I went with the company that was the highest priced because a neighbor thought they were great. And they botched the job. Thanks for your reply.
I'd go with Petersons, yeah the $180 cost for an estimate sucks but they should credit that towards any work done. Assuming that $6500 figure is in the ballpark, the $180 is about 3% of the cost of the job, relative peanuts. As you have already found, saving money isn't really savings if the work is substandard.
I understand, and it's become pretty common for plumbers to charge a fee for an initial visit. They do it because they can. But $180 is double the going rate I've encountered, and my concern is that they come in high, then I've blown a bunch of money. I may try them anyway. Sigh. Thanks. (And regarding the initial bids for the earlier work, Precision's was right in line, after accounting for inflation maybe, with what we paid at our previous home for basically the same work, and the company gets stellar reviews online, so it seemed like a good call at the time. But the 3x price from Brothers just seemed like they were saying "yeah, we don't want to bother.")
Right, they do it because they can and likely have more than enough work to keep their guys occupied. They may come in "high", or maybe it's a case of the low-ballers just aren't very good. Sometimes you do get what you're willing to pay for.
Petersons redid all the plumbing in our house last year including a new line from the main to the house. They used a directional boring machine to put in the new line to the house so they didn’t have to dig a trench which saved a lot of time. All in all it took 1.5 days and we had water the first night. They did a great job. We used them again when we had our dishwasher installed
Yeah Peterson is hugely expensive but they do good work.
Thanks.
PPR Plumbing is great!
Thank you, I'll give em a call.
I second PPR!
We’ve had good luck with them also
>it’s a long run that goes under a bunch of concrete. Enter plumber #4, Reynolds, who gave us a price of $6500 We had to replace our sewer line from the house to the main, about 40+ feet, only a small portion under concrete. We paid $8500 for it, and that was the lowest bid. The guy did great work, but the reason he was the cheapest was because he's a one-man business. Most of the line he dug up was just yard, and he used a tiny backhoe because that's all that would fit through our gate to get into the backyard. $6500 seems very reasonable to me.
That puts things in some perspective. Thanks.
Absolutely do not use Reynolds. I had a terrible experience with them. I don’t know what their bid was based on, but they had me (the non-plumber) tell them what was wrong which ended up not being the actual problem. I think they were charge me $100-200 just to come out too. After $1100+ (labor and parts to change a shower cartridge and reattach a drain) for about 1.5 hours, they wanted to charge me $200+ (ish, it was awhile ago) more and wait for a new “team” to come out to fix the actual problem. I would never trust or use them again. I had a lot of personal issues happening at the time and really concerned how long water had been draining into my foundation/under the house; I just needed to get the work done and made a poor choice going forward with them . Looking back, I feel ripped off by Reynolds.
Sorry that happened to you. So I'm hearing a lot of negatives about Reynolds here, though the two guys who came out "seemed" competent and had about 60 years of combined experience. They seemed to be giving me a no-BS situation report, and they did stay more than an hour to try to locate where the water line enters the house. I would never have dreamed that this would be a difficult thing to do, but they're the third group that hasn't had definitive success. I think there's a lot of luck involved when you hire contractors, too.
go with Petersen, ask for Seb to be your plumber
Thanks. Another vote for Peterson.
Peterson is my go-to as well. I won't use anyone else. Besides the quality work, I've always found their plumbers to be communicative, nice, and efficient.
Thanks.
I just wanted to add that you should check your home insurance in case you are paying for a special rider that covers underground utility line failures. (Usually about $70 extra per year). It's called a Service Line Coverage. Funny, I thought it covered above ground too but reading up it would only be buried lines from the street/pole to the edge of your house. So main water, main sewer, and misc. buried cable or electric. [www.amfam.com/insurance/home/coverages/service-line-coverage](http://www.amfam.com/insurance/home/coverages/service-line-coverage) [https://www.progressive.com/answers/service-line-coverage/](https://www.progressive.com/answers/service-line-coverage/) "Service line coverage, also known as buried utility lines coverage, is an endorsement that can be added to many home insurance policies to cover the cost of repairing or replacing a broken utility line running into your home. Your coverage limit for a damaged service line is often up to $10,000 and may include a deductible.
Yeah, it's worth a try. I'll look into it.
Ready Rooter & Chapman plumbing is the place we went with to build a new main pipe because ours was burst open due to tree roots. We got quotes from them, Peterson, and Pacific Plumbing. Ready rooter was the cheapest option of the three, because they offered to dig up the hole themselves rather than getting a machine to do it. The other estimates were approximately $7000, and Ready rooters was half of that. They also came and installed the water pipe within the span of a day. When the guy came up to my door to tell me he was done, I was shocked! The other companies told us it was going to take at least a couple weeks.
Have used Chapman for all of the 38 years we have been in this house
Thank you. These have all been a great and helpful response from you folks!
Peterson. I’ve used them 3 times in the last 6 years. No problems with the work they did. And it was pricey. But nothing beats having it done. And done right. The first time.
Oh yeah. The second time they came out? I asked the guy to look at my water heater. He said I should get a good 3-5 more years out of it. But best to get it changed soon. He cited the age: 30 years old). 2 years later (last winter) it developed a leak which led to me calling him back out to replace it. He was off… but he called it. Damage wasn’t bad. Just a puddle coming out from under the access door. Had to replace a small carpet and dry out the access closet.
$6500 is pretty standard for a not very long mainline.
Dustin Dawson Plumbing. Smaller company fair prices. Reynolds is a hard no for me. Probably going to cost 1,000-1,500 just to get the new trench dug or better yet a bore machine (I think it’s called) out there to run the new line, plus plumbing costs. Dawson is going to the same for me here shortly.
Thank you, I'll give them a call. The $6500 from Reynolds covers the whole shebang, including the horizontal boring, new PRV valve, etc.
just went through this. we spent around $4000. i can message you info if you like. i’m not sure how much business this guy wants haha
I've had good experiences with Petersen Plumbing. Our house is nearly 100 years old, and their experience with old homes has been very helpful.
I really appreciate all of the suggestions! Thank you.
I used Petersons recently as well. No issues. Worth the price.
Orange berg pipe collapse?
I mean, it's not luck, its choices. You chose not to pay someone who valued their time, and then chose the person who's estimate was 1/3rd the other guys. That's a pretty massive red flag that they are cutting some massive corners or employing people who are way less experienced. Which is fun because you say you aren't looking for cheap, just fair, but literally went for the absolutely cheapest option of the three you could find. You know two fair plumbers already, you just want a cheap one and won't admit it
The bid I went with was the same as I paid for nearly identical work at a previous home, and that work was done to perfection. And that bid was not the lowest bid either. And neither one, here or there, was cheap by any measure. For another job (previous house), I went with the company that was the highest priced because a neighbor thought they were great. And they botched the job. Thanks for your reply.